The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for alleviating an abnormal behavior. More specifically, the present invention relates to computer-implemented interactive techniques for alleviating a behaviorally abnormal self-sustaining behavior.
Many obsessive or other abnormal behaviors are manifested in a variety of forms, and comprise part of the symptomatology of many neurological and psychiatric impairments and illnesses. For example, the behaviors are often manifested in patients suffering from “obsessive-compulsive disorder” (OCD), a malady affecting more several million Americans. In this syndrome, an individual has an obsessive fear or concern or behavior that arises often, and with weak triggering, or spontaneously, in a manner that is often disruptive to the individual's life. Such an individual may be fearful, for example, of a particular animal, a mode of transportation, particularly social circumstances or settings, possible sources of poisoning, specific or general considerations of health, death, and so forth. The concerns of an OCD patient may be focussed on their health, on some aspect of cleanliness, or related to other personal habits or life circumstances.
Obsessions in another form are expressed by specific fears such as the fear of flying or claustrophobia, in which the obsession involves a highly unlikely, but potentially dangerous, situation. Obsessions in yet another form are expressed in “Traumatic Stress Disorders” (TSDs), in which the obsession involves a disturbing social event that generates ongoing morbid pathology. Obsessions related to the social circumstances, paraphernalia, and other objects and circumstances that predict the likely future availability of or access to addictive drugs can contribute to a craving for them. Obsessions of other classes are manifested in the perseverative behaviors of autistic or other disturbed children, in the often powerfully intruding and self-generating delusions of psychiatric patients, in the grossly abnormal movement behaviors of Parkinsons disease patients, in patients suffering from chronic pain, in patients suffering from incessant, ongoing sounds (tinnitus)—and in innumerable other forms, in neurologically “impaired” and “diseased” patients, as well as in the general human population.
Currently, care for these disorders is primarily limited to low frequency methods such as manual therapy. The manual therapy usually consists of face-to-face interaction in a therapy site such as a physician's office. Therapy frequency is then limited by the convenience or ability of the person to travel to the therapy site. In another costly example, the person may remain in a hospital for high frequency care or assessment of the obsessive or abnormal behavior status. However, the dramatic costs of inpatient health care may make this alternative undesirably expensive. For these reasons, conventional therapy for an obsessive or abnormal behavior is highly limited.
An abnormal behavior may also be expressed as a bad habit that impairs the effective mastery of an important or useful skill or ability. For example, habits developed from earlier behavioral practices may limit and impede the movement, perceptual or cognitive abilities of a child or adult in a manner that limits their successful mastery of important general skills, such as the development of normal mobility, handwriting, or the use of tools, or for example the development of listening skills required to master successful reading or the use of a new language, or for example the development of cognitive skills necessary to develop strong reasoning abilities. In these and in numerous other cases of this kind, the unlearning of bad habits that impede or delay the development of more useful skills can be an important part of successful learning and positive skill development.
Based on the foregoing, it should be evident that there is a need for systems and methods to alleviate obsessive or abnormal behaviors.